Under spectacle capitalism, appearing replaced having as the commodity exchanged

Evidence

Lived experiences became reified and removed into an orbit of representations that was ultimately inaccessible, out of reach. Yet revealingly, the pull of that era’s illusionary capitalist promises (e.g., of consumption) remained active (that is, visible), even though they were no longer being fulfilled. Commodification of having was thus superseded by commodification of appearing, and sociality itself became an object of value exchange. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 304

Categorization

• XREF: The shift from commodification of having to commodification of appearing is a direct precursor to financialized value — where sociality and image themselves become tradable. Strong link to the reader’s finance book theme and to the immodesty article’s account of dress as social signaling. — connects to: Bourgeois ascendancy turned novelty from by-product into an end pursued for its own sake — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 61; Scarcity has shifted from production of goods to consumption of attention. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 41; Under capitalist subsumption, the self becomes a saleable commodity defined by interchangeability — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 206 (+8 more)
• SEED: Angle: tracing the lineage from Debord’s commodified appearing to modern influencer/curation economies and speculative self-branding as financial assets.

Broader Connections

• Under capitalist subsumption, the self becomes a saleable commodity defined by interchangeability #expands (0.85) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 206
• When visual appearance is labor, bodily modification raises the commodity’s exchange value. #expands (0.82) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 157
• Under real subsumption, social life itself becomes object of capitalist speculation #expands (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 457
• Market discourse displaces the Marxian model by shifting from production to circulation #qualifies (0.75)